Xbox One may not be a hit like the Xbox 360, despite impressive features

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As the launch of the next-gen consoles nears, Microsoft is starting to speak more specifically about some of the impressive features that the Xbox One will support. Kinect-based player tracking and other novel additions like cloud gaming are quite compelling, but that won’t be enough to make the Xbox One a success. In fact, a recent report estimates that the total sales of next-gen consoles will fail to match the sales numbers of the previous generation. Even with more horsepower and countless bullet points, the new consoles might be doomed to lackluster sales.

When the PS4 was announced back in February, Sony made a big deal about the ability to play games as they finish downloading in the background. Not to be outdone, Microsoft has officially confirmed that the Xbox One will be able to perform that exact same task. While Microsoft hasn’t publicly made a move to counter Sony’s Gaikai technology, this is an important step towards gaining parity with the PS4’s feature set.

Now that Microsoft and Sony have both settled on the x86 architecture and intend on charging monthly fees, the race is on to find meaningful ways to differentiate the platforms from each other. Since its abrupt marketing 180, Microsoft is continuing to narrow the gap, so the pressure is on Sony to keep pushing the envelope with its cloud gaming innovations.

While Sony decided against including a camera with the PS4, Microsoft and its partners seem to be doubling down on the importance of the Kinect. During a panel at this year’s EVO event in Las Vegas, the Killer Instinct development team went out of its way to sing the praises of the next-gen Kinect’s player tracking capabilities. This Xbox One exclusive will use the Kinect’s camera to recognize who is holding which controller, and automatically change control schemes and characters on the fly.

The possibilities of this type of dynamic player tracking are endless. Does one of your friends always screw up your controls by inverting the Y-axis? With the Xbox One, the Kinect can keep track of who inverts and who doesn’t. You’ll never have to fight with the settings again! Even better, your settings could easily follow you across consoles. You could customize your settings at home, authorize your account on your buddy’s Xbox One, and have the game change to fit your needs whenever the Kinect recognizes that you’re holding the controller.

Even with all of these spectacular features headed for next-gen consoles, ABI Research is expecting a downturn in overall console sales. Thanks to the rise of cheap set-top boxes, these analysts are anticipating the PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U to only sell 133 million units combined in their first five years. That’s a 5% drop from 140 million consoles sold during the first five years of the current generation.

While some are quick to point out that the Wii U’s poor sales are contributing to the overall decline, it would be shortsighted to pin this all on Nintendo’s failings. It’s safe to assume that the increased competition from smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, and Steam will make game consoles less appealing than they were circa 2006. With so many other options for consumers, the traditional gaming console could be in for some hard times going forward.

Tagged In

Pointless, just make some god damn good games. How many developers are jumping into the Kinect and for how long will they supported? I’m sure after a few months it will be picking up dust.Yeah killer instinct what’s after that?

zane

I agree, make great games and the rest will take care of its self. Personally I bought Kinect Star Wars thinking my kids would use it. In what 18 months, I bet it hasn’t been connected a week. It would take a massive clearance sale for me to fork out money for X1 Kinect 2.0. We gave MS a good 8 years of 6-360s and 4 XBL accounts. We have 2- PS3 the last couple of years. Its PS4 time !

James Lawrence Murphy II

BF4

MnMan

BF4, every 1st party game, crazy stuff that hasn’t even been dreamed up yet.

The thing can read your heart rate. Difficulty can amp up when you get nervous until you flat line, and then they can call you an ambulance. Sweet!

Phobos

BF4 with the Kinect? Dunno how well FPS will work with the Kinect

Nathan O

voice commands are a given. Military hand signals would be easy to pull off. And a lean mechanic when taking covers to peak around corners. 3 simple examples that have the potential to enhance an FPS game (especially the last one)

Nathan O

BF, Project spark, Ryse, Forza5.

Drewidian

If MS gets the cable and satellite companies to subsidize the XBox One (since it could be the center of your entertainment and there are already relationships established between MS and the Cable/Satellite companies) for say $99 – $199 with a 2 year contract, they will definitely beat their XBox 360 sales by year 5. In fact, they may sell more than the entire gen 7 consoles combined considering that there are only about 350M of those sold and there are 1.5 Billion Cable or Satellite customers around the world, but they probably won’t announce this until 2014 at the earliest.

John Pombrio

90% of my XBox 360 usage goes for Netflix (gave up cable TV), 10% for gaming. I donno if all these free games that I have been getting from Gold lately will change that.
I am getting the XBox One for an entertainment center, not as a strictly gaming platform.

Mirimon

save your money then, ps4 will do that without needed a sub (ps3 does that now without paying additional, having uncompressed audio is nice).

an xbox one isn’t actually adding any features you don’t already have. And if being used in the manner you say, why would you pay more for less machine?

IKROWNI

all of you save you money and just invest in pc steam is gonna knock ms and ps4 for a loop before too long especailly when the occulus rift comes about. how will microsofts petty little spy cameras keep up with tech like the occulus? seems to me a lot of people are gonna waste $500 for a cable box. wake up people that $500 can have you running a pc that works better than a console. why play a game where only half of the objects are even rendered? watch some pc vs console vids look up specs do whatever it takes just snap out of the console crack rocks. ive rolled xbox for years now and im proud to say never again. and any good camera can measure your heart rate. thats not something that MS came up with. i doubt any of the games aside from simple things like castle crashers will be 1080p unless its upscaled.

The bottom line is your getting ripped and hard. wait till january when DDR4 comes out running at 2x the speed of the xbox ram. or how about a haswell-e processor lets compare that to the amd jaguar… how did ms even come witht he idea to roll amd chip over intel for gaming? oh thats right its because its not a gaming console its a damn cable box.

look i can watch tv and check facebook all while playing 720p games yayyyy. ummmm im pretty sure i could do that 13 years ago on my pc if facebook woulda been around back then.

for the money the pc is the smarter investment. as far as features show me one thing the xbox can do that my pc cant and if you can find 1 thing i can find a million that the pc can do that the xbox will never be able to.

oh yea and just because ms says no always on drm right now would you really put it past a shady company like MS to bring it right back after all the sales flow in? im pretty sure sony did it to there customers already a few times. with promises of a completely open system that you could run linux on then BAM sorry were not letting you do any of these things anymore.

get steam big picture wait till january and grab a gtx 780 a bunch of ddr4 ram a haswel-e processor and thank me later.

GatzLoc

as far as features show me one thing the xbox can do that my pc can’t.

Make millions of nooblords depart with their money, me, I’d rather play with my doubleswords and swordboots fighting the stoner brothers in the jungle.

Right now the ddr4 module is way too expensive for what it offers (2133 MHz – 2400 MHz clock speed) in comparison to the ddr3.

I would suggest anyone considering ddr4 to wait at least January 2015 (it would be better to wait till January 2016), besides buying
a ddr4 module for a good price/value, you could get a GPU based on Nvidia Volta architecture and an Intel Skylake (Skymont?) CPU….or whatever will AMD offer, if you like their products better.

IKROWNI

I can’t seem to find a price for DDR4 since it’s not out until the beginning of 2014, and the speed is double that of ddr3 check here http://www.crucial.com/promo/DDR4.aspx i expect ddr4 to take over the prices of DDR3, and DDR3 to shoot down in price significantly. Intel is known to be better at gaming, but AMD is cheaper. Haswell-E will be the first to support DDR4, and I wouldn’t expect for there top tier CPU to be over $400-$500 starting out and then falling within 6 months to reasonable prices. Also your speeds are also incorrect that you listed above DDR4 is 2133MHz–4266MHz also allowing up to 128GB RAM installed “overkill i know” but at least the option is there.

HyperionLight

The initial speed of the ddr 3 module was 800 MHz, but now someone managed to over clock it all the way to 4.28GHz. So I believe the initial batches of ddr4 will be clocked at around 2133 MHz to 2400 MHz.

It would be great if the ddr4 was really cheap from the get go, but based on past experience I have a hard time believing it will be like that.

Jeffrey Byers

The PS4 is an incredible gaming machine for the price. The modified GPU, 8GB of shared GDDR5 memory, and the ability to optimize for the hardware will make well optimized PS4 games perform similar to a $1000 PC.

Take off $60 for the controller and $100 for a dedicated BluRay player for a similar movie experience (quick start, quiet, remote control), then factor in the $100 you need for Windows and you’ve got $160 for hardware to build your gaming PC. Good luck with that.

The uneducated keep trashing the new consoles before they’ve even arrived. There are a few cons, but game performance vs price is definitely not one of them.

IKROWNI

Pffffft hahahaha good going guy, now you got my side hurting from laughing so hard. You people who are talking so highly about the consoles before they have even arrived are the funny ones. The reason why I find your kind so funny is because you have no idea about how hardware performs, and what they are cutting out of the games to allow this crap hardware to run it. Your just numb to the facts, and have no desire to learn, and understand how these components work.

More Kool-Aid?

Obviously it will run the games but all at the cost of losing out on most of the artifacts in the game that just will not even be rendered. There is a reason why the lead guys at forza said that each game maker will have to tweak the settings to get 1080p at 60FPS, cause the only way its gonna happen is at the cost of graphics quality, and lots of it!

Alex Whitfield

What cool aid you drinking? I plan on the ps4 dunno about xb1 bad value but best value is ps4 hands down. 8 gigs of gddr5 and a octa core processor and 5500 mhz graphics for $400 point to me where a pc has that. Plus ps plus can give me dozens of free aaa games to my ps3 and ps4 along with other freebies exclusive content and even discounted downloads for just $50 a year. Also dont forget the ps4 is hd ready and bluray cabable and a $60 included controller. If I went pc I would spend that much just for a similar graphics chip and that kind of ram. Hell all the money needed for a good gaming pc rig I didnt get I saved enough for a regular computer. 6 gigs of ddr3 and 2.6 ghz dual core and minecraft I feel fine. Plus I spent less then you got more then you and have the better gaming experiance. Pc = graphics drooler console = experiance drooling. Now finally lets remember the new consoles now output at 1080p graphics you know the outer limit the human eye I which can distinguish. All thats left is to increase particle effects and ow yea the Ps4 did that too. Go home pc gamers and stop whining about how you cant find decent reasons to make us convert. If pcs were so much better than why dont more gamers do it that way ow because gaming in a chair on the internet is one no life and two not as fun I rather have fruends over to play as well and pc sucks at that. Not without major investment and prooving it aint worth it. Sorry to rate but I have grown tired of hearing you a holes go on about your pc rig likes it a god or something. Look I know you prefer it and want to justify all the money you through in it but it doesnt mean drive us nuts about it so go to a pc blog and shut up.

MnMan

LIES!

esan

ditto

MnMan

Whoa this article lacks some serious facts. Microsoft is leveraging its Azure technology to counter the mysterious Gaikai. Microsoft is also offering dedicated servers and cloud computing for online games. That is a pretty big deal and Sony has yet to counter.

What specifically does Gaikai even bring to the table? Other than backwards compatibility, which isn’t available at launch, we don’t know what that is there for other than to bring PS4’s network up to where the 360 is today.

whateverdude

Gaikai used to stream games AAA games. I’m pretty sure it is still capable of doing that.

Xellion

MS is pushing an almost-too-transparent agenda with this console…its not about the games, its about the data collection and the control.

you’re no longer make a gaming console for gamers, but a crippled HTPC for EVERYONE.

problematic.

just saying

Interesting, the report is about declining gaming consoles in general but your “article’s” headline only screams XBOX ONE. You people just simply cannot quit

Couldn’t agree more. MS Azure is a seriously big deal that is being underestimated. It looks as if MS is subsidizing the cost of MS Azure services for developers so they essentially have access to all of this power for free. What does this mean, really? There is a good chance that every XB1 multiplayer game will use dedicated servers and the MP maps will be running as long as MS Azure is still around, no longer will we have to worry about Infinity Ward pulling the plug on their servers for one of our favorite MP games because it doesn’t have the install base any longer. MS Azure can automatically scale up or down the server sizes based on the people still playing the game.

IKROWNI

im pretty sure ms will be charging companies an arm and a leg to get in on those servers so i doubt you will see many companies going that extra mile. PC FTW

esan

The primary reason titanfall states being on the XB1 is a result of the affordable access to the cloud.

Nathan O

Well than you would be wrong.

“Microsoft is subsidizing cloud utility for developers—essentially, it will cost developers nothing to build on/access the Azure platform. So while I don’t believe it’s mandatory for a title to offer dedicated servers, there wouldn’t be any investment on the dev side to do so, which means… Yup, dedicated servers for everything. (Certainly for marquee MP experiences like BF3/4, COD, Titanfall, Destiny, etc). This is a huge part of why “persistent online world” was such a buzzphrase at E3 this year.” – See more at: http://videogamesandnews.com/xbox-one-cloud-a-pr-gimmick-or-the-real-deal/#sthash.s3HcP4N4.dpuf

IKROWNI

We will see. But giving giving the opportunity they will find a way to screw you over its microsoft just look at the godawful crap they did to windows. Not saying that windows was ever all that great anyways. I kinda remember how they screwed up millions of computers with vista and there way of fixing the mess was by charging you for another operating system that fixed the messups in the last one. Now we get windows 8 and then something will roll out soon enough with a pricetag on it im sure to fix all the messups in it.

MS could basically stick the guts of a nintendo into a nice shiny case that watches your every move you make, and turn around a sell it to the masses for hundreds just because they tell you to buy it. And for the most part thats exactly what they did they threw some old assed pc parts into a shiny box that will overheat. Or who knows maybe just maybe they “underclocked” it far enough to avoid a repeat of the last time. You remember when class action lawsuits had to be filed in order to have any relief for the RROD. Microsoft wanted to piss those customers down the river and not take accountability for there mistakes.

minhin

I don’t know where you are going with the ranting. You mad bro?

Nathan O

I’m assuming that you haven’t tried Win8, and you definitely haven’t tried Win8.1 as it has addressed many of the problems people were having with the OS and it is a free update rolling out this year, I have the preview now and I think its awesome. Win8 (and MS in general) get a lot of unjustified hate. This isn’t the 90’s anymore, MS no longer holds the keys to the tech monopoly and their business practices show that. You can get outraged about things like RRoD all you like but all I know is MS gave me a brand new Xbox when mine RRoD’d after I owned it for 2.5 years. You can hate on MS all you want, I just don’t think that you’ve made one valid point about why they are the such a anti-consumer and evil company. I hear this shit all the time and I just don’t see evidence for it. Maybe 20 years ago, but a lot has changed since then.

And for those who don’t want to read through all of that I present to you the most important – in my humble opinion – excerpt from the “article”.

Microsoft spends more R&D, just on the cloud, than their competitors (console and PC) spend on their entire R&D projects across all offerings

minhin

Holy sh*t. That’s an awesome link. I am gonna favorite and add it to my arsenal

IKROWNI

if every moron that drank the MS kool-aid would just go hard into pc gaming we would have better consoles in the market but there are too many tards that just take it up the rear because they are completely uninformed or have no idea about hardware specs and prices. im pretty sure the graphics arent even going to look that much better, and before you start linking the ghost comparison to mw3 think about what you are doing for a moment those are different game engines that is why they look so different. radeon 7977 is outdated junk AMD processors are terrible for gaming and ddr3 ram is about to be old news.

steam will be bringing in one of the features MS promised there fan based and then took from them after the sales went through you know the whole family share plan. i dont understand how that is not considered theft. when a company gives you the details on a feature and then you place an order for it and it comes without those features do you really feel that this is ok. thats like ordering a cd player and getting a tape player instead.

Guest

its called a comma

Kendall Ravey

Hey, he gets a few points for capitalizing AMD and MS.
…Just AMD and MS.
*sigh*

IKROWNI

I was ranting quickly and had to leave soon when I posted that earlier. My most sincere apologies. Let me guess school teacher? Or just common douche bag?

Kendall Ravey

I’m simply that guy who likes to read intelligent comments, and bad grammar is quite the flashy indication of incompetence. You, however, don’t seem to be absolutely retarded like everyone else seems to be when speaking of the console war.

IKROWNI

The compliment is comforting and I retract any negative statements I have made in this entire section. My point was never to come on here and get into a who’s is bigger fight with anyone cause I know mines bigger. What I did come here for was to let people know that there are options that far surpass that of either of the next-gen consoles.

The biggest problem I have ran into lately is just convincing my friends to entertain the idea of gaming on the PC. They say that its too difficult or too expensive. Some complain about viruses. But the bottom line is that steam can pretty much turn your PC into a console of sort, just without the massive restrictions. These massive restrictions on the consoles are the only reason that you have no viruses running on them. They are so dumbed down that there really isn’t much that you can do to put a virus on it. The only way that you could put a virus onto an xbox 360 at the current time would be if you had a hacked consoles that runs unsigned code so there is really no point in making a console virus.

Now the next fish to fry is that all of my friends are talking about the MS statement about 4k resolution. With the xbox one equipped with HDMI 1.4a what is the point in 4k resolution when you would be gaming at around 15FPS.

I just recently ran all new cat-6 cable through my entire house 2 lines to each room. im planning for HDBaseT. http://www.hdbaset.org/ I would much rather have my audio/video/network all in one simple cable that can handle 4k resolutions with no problem, that mixed with a GTX 780 which can also put out that type of resolution to 4 monitors at once.

Anyone that games on PC knows most games have tons of sliders to adjust different graphics qualities. To get the same quality of gaming from my PC as I would an xbox one I would most likely have to turn all of those sliders all the way down. But what on earth would compel me to ever want to do that? Well i wouldn’t and that’s why I will not buy an xbox one. $500 will buy me a few nice upgrades to my pc, a netflix, hulu, and amazon subscription for a full year, and then still have money left over.

Kendall Ravey

I do agree that PC gaming has its ups, but console does have benefits as well. Personally, I primarily dislike the open peripheral nature of the PC. I have a $30 keyboard and I keep getting absolutely destroyed by people with more expensive pads. My mouse has a low tracking frequency, my monitor is not too high a resolution, and above all I do not have a comfortable area to set all the control devices. On consoles, everyone has the same controller on the same unit. That controller doesn’t have to be set on a desk, either. And then there’s the price. I have a $900 refurbished laptop that I use for work, like video rendering and such. It’s not even two years old at the time and I still only get around 20FPS on medium-low settings in Planetside 2. It’s completely unacceptable for gaming. My desktop is no better. I picked up my 360, on the other hand, on eBay for around $45, and at the same settings (except no SSAO… D`: ) it will get at least 30FPS. Quite a big performance increase for something so much cheaper that I can barely count it.

Also, you said $500 would net you a few upgrades, but with a GTX 780 that costs a few hundred more than the Xbox One alone, I could hardly imagine what you could get that you don’t already have.

IKROWNI

Heres a $500 build that would pretty well compete with the xbox one right now http://www.gamersnexus.net/pc-builds/46-pcbuildupg/1091-cheap-bastard-april-build But there are so many huge updates to hardware coming later this year, those prices for a xbox one equilvelant will most likely be down to around $300 by the time the consoles ship out. As for the peripherals, i love the ability to choose from thousands of brands, can even use an xbox one or ps4 controller with the pc. The only thing I am heavily awaiting is the oculus rift. And there is absolutely no way you will ever see the rift on a console.

Kendall my sons pc has a GTX 550 ti, phenom II 3.6ghz and 8gb ram and he plays wow at ultra and gets around 50-60 FPS in 25 man raids. He doesn’t really play anything else and wow is more cpu dependent, but i’m sure the 550 can handle more gpu intense games at playable rates with the settings pretty high up.

Kendall Ravey

You do have the Oculus Rift – that’s something I’d love to use. And my GPU is near the GTX550’s specs (similar VRAM, Shader profiles, texture fill) and it can really play things such as WoW, Minecraft, and even ArmA with fair settings. But when you slide into newer games, it really falters and delivers a bad experience. And that PC actually fails to equal the rumored next-gen graphics. Even so, with a set architecture, designers can squeeze the loving occlusion out of every processing thread. No one would dream they would be playing Metro: Last Light on Xbox at the settings they were if they read stats alone. It shows how a specialized unit can outperform general-purpose at most times. The SoC on the Xbox One and PS4, too, really provides unparallelled access times. It can’t happen on a PC with a PCIe interface. Really, unless you want to quad-SLI Titans (save us all) you’re not going to get definitive performance better than what developers can squeeze out of consoles. It’s devs vs. hundreds of graphics and processing combinations or two consoles with similar architecture.

As someone who builds computers for friends, family and self, and who is familiar with building code in Java, C++ and VB, and who regularly keeps up with tech mags and blogs, I just want to say that when I hear people talk about the ignorant masses being the ones interested in consoles, I just shake my head. Perhaps you know more and have more experience with hardware and/or software in general than I do, but it’s extremely unlikely. And I only say all that so when I say to you that *you* are the one who doesn’t grasp that just because a PC can do something another device can do, we don’t necessarily want to use the PC for everything.

I guess people who use smart phones or tablets in the house are idiots too because they could do the same thing (and faster with better graffix!!1!@) on a PC? It’s a matter of preferring stand-along machines to do something specific. It’s the look, the feel, the UI, etc. that differentiates the experience. When the day comes that to play a console I’d need to crank up the machine and see my email, work spreadsheets, Word documents, etc. then ignore all that, then click into the gaming sphere, then I’d probably just build the computer to do that. I’m well aware of PC gaming, but I’m so tethered to the PC for everything I do for work, I truly enjoy the experience of NOT being on a PC for another extended length of time.

I could easily build a dedicated gaming PC without Excel, Outlook, etc. installed (so my brain doesn’t necessarily go to “work” mode), and could write a script so that when I crank on the machine, it opens straight to Valve, or some menu of other installed games or something to that effect. Truly, I could, and it wouldn’t take much effort, and it would be similar to a console experience. But you know what, I PREFER the consoles. I prefer the novelty, the smoothness and the experience of consoles versus that of a gaming PC. I just don’t understand why that is so difficult to see. Not only that, I don’t understand how PC warriors equate console appreciation with PC ignorance.

Also, trust me, it is NOT all about the graphics either. That a PC game has somewhat better graphics matters very little at this stage. It mattered back when graphics sucked and any improvement was AWESOME. And, it will matter in maybe 10-20 years when everything looks super realistic in games and we expect realism. However, we’re in a middle stage of graphics where they in no way suck, and they in no way look real. No graphics to most any playable part of a game look truly ‘real’. So looking a slightly better version of “not truly real” doesn’t necessarily count for huge points versus looking like a slightly less version of “not truly real”.

Ok, rant over, from someone who loves PCs and tinkering with them but who also loves consoles.

IKROWNI

hit start, type msconfig, click startup tab, remove things you dont want popping up everytime you turn on your pc. the only things i run at startup are python scripts to start a few things that i need running at any time my pc is running but even those things dont pop up anymore cause i made it so that they wont. and as far as ui and all of that stuff i guess steam big picture has something wrong with it?

And yes there is a huge difference when comparing the quality of gaming from a pc as oppose to the consoles. You just watch ill grab an xbox one from a friend and do a side by side screen comparison as soon as it is out. Im willing to bet you that 360 vs xbox one will look almost the same and pc will just destroy the looks, the speeds, and the overall feel of the game.

For gods sake people they highlighted the ability to lean from cover in call of duty for consoles. hmmm been doing that since cod4 on pc.

When im looking for a brand new car i dont go to the used car lot, just like when im looking for a gaming machine im not gonna grab hardware that is soo old and such crap. They can tweak whatever they want to but as always user created mods always end up blowing it all out of the water.

if its anything like you say it is then why all the cover ups and silence about everything. Why during the reveal of your console would you use computers with gtx 780’s in it to show off your console when your consoles gpu is sooo far below it.

The brief moment they were using the console to show off BF4 is froze and they took us back to the live feed.

The industry is NOT going to be honest with you one bit. Have they ever?

You are all going crazy over a piece of old hardware that in all honesty noone has even seen anything running on it. Because it crapped out before we could. And yes i understand there is still a couple months till release but i really dont believe that a couple of months will change much since they have been working on this for a loooong time now.

whateverdude

Features? the only thing I could think of is that kinect which is garbage if you are a gamer. LoL………PCs already do what both of these consoles do……

zapper

one these should announce compatibility with Oculus, else I am not going to buy any. Oculus is future and I dont know why none of these big shots have any brains to develop such a great idea of a wearable tracking headgear with a wide FOV.

IKROWNI

The consoles will not have the power to use the oculus rift, but with maybe a little luck by the year 2040 there will be a console that is built for gaming and not television viewing, or facebook/twitter. Then and only then we might have the power to play GAMES on our console with the games running at max with a rift over our eyes.

But with MS track record of never listening to there customers i seriously doubt it.

I cant wait for the Xbox Two to be announced next year with its all new DDR2 ram and 960Mhz processor and there finely tuned 8400GS. and hey why leave it with only 1 camera for gov surveillance why not have a camera in every room. we will even make one for the shower as well. So you can play the new kinect “dont drop the soap” game.

Willy McBurgle

‘Does your friend always screw up the controls…’
No one cares about this. The continued desperation in trying to justify the existence of Kinect is getting more absurd as time goes on. The reality is that Microsoft has invested a fortune in Kinect and as it’s the only thing that now sets them apart – they are desperate to hold it up as some sort of ‘must have’ feature – and that, it will never be.

buddynugget

Dude that’s just what Double Helix addex that’s one company. Dead Rising 3 Forza Project Spark BF4 and many others are all doing different things with Kinect and it’ll get better as time goes on. Than you add voice and gesture controls in for basic navigation of the console and for switching games, tv channels and etc. No need to hate just because you think it wont stack up to your needs. It is alluring Just for its basic function of gesture and voice controls and the developers adding in features for core gamers who don’t want to dance around like a moron in their living and bed rooms.

Willy McBurgle

lol – there it is again! Someone talks about how ‘Kinect is great for games’ and then talks about how you can switch games and tv channels… Gesture controls make no sense in AAA titles so that’s out – and the voice recognition on Kinect 1.0 was violently inconsistent when working with my surround sound setup – so that’s out too. As for switching TV channels – I’ll use my Yamaha received for that – thanks – no need to tie up 3Gigs of precious RAM to do the job of my Harmony remote (which works much better)

buddynugget

Voice recognition on Kinect 1.0 has nothing to do with 2.0 stay on topic. 2.0 has a multi array microphone setup and drowns out background noises and noises coming from your speakers so it can hear your controls better. Subtle gestures can also absolutely improve game experiences in any type of game. There hasn’t been a good kinect tool until now and only a small percentage owned one now its 100x better and everyone has one so big studios will start using them. Can’t knock it unti you try it. And I’m not rying to convince u of anything this is merely for anybody with an open mind that read your opinion. Frankly very close minded.

Willy McBurgle

Oh – so you’re saying to me ‘It’s version 2.0! Forget about the failures of the first model – it’s all good now. Really. Trust me….’

(whispers) psst: that’s what they said about the first one ;)
I am an experience 360 owner and an experienced Kinect owner as well as a long-time user of Microsoft products since the mid-80’s – I’ll trust my own judgement about what is ‘fact’ and what is marketing hype. Thanks.

You’re basing your opinion on wishful thinking and sales claims – you have nothing else to convince anyone of Kinect’s reliability or relevance.

alex

Same could be said for psn considering the first model really sucked ass :) smarten up

Willy McBurgle

the first playstation model sucked? You’re obviously too young (or not born at the time) to remember – the PS1 was a fantastic device. Heck – it gave us the first Metal Gear Solid and the first Gran Turismo.

alex

And this is where i stop this convo…psn is their network you giant derp….ps3 had its first model…please dont comment back and make yourself look dumb again…and btw yes the 3 hour software updates and lag filled multiplayer made it awful..gg

Willy McBurgle

then why did you refer to it as a ‘model’? (which implied hardware) The Playstation Network is a service that has been continuously improved. Microsoft didn’t even have a service until now as Xbox Online is peer-to-peer which makes it all the more cheeky that they charge for it. That now changes with the Xbox One as Microsoft will be offering Azure cloud bases for studios to host online.

alex

Oh god…they still dont even have party chat. Point is PSN sucks..like really badly, and compared to XBL it always will for the simple fact that microsoft is pulling in 14 billion dollars profit while sony consistanly loses millions a year…meaning soon sony wont be able to afford to upgrade whereas at microsoft the sky is the limit..case closed

ha55ie

Kinect v1 & Kinect v2 are the same, by name…
Kinect v1 wa made by Prime Sense. Software by MS
Kinect v2 has no Prime Sense tech in it. Soft/Hard-ware both done in house by MS from the ground up.

High-Def camera, ir sensors, the Mic arrays, will work nicely in AAA titles… DR3 will use it… If you make noises, the Zombies will detect it…getting nervous, the AI will notice it…

Voice as button input can work wonders in a AAA title if done correctly… That gives you 4 face buttons, 4triggers, and a voice to work with… Say for instance, you are playing a game as a warrior and you blurt out ice shield, and your warrior throws up an ice shield and blocks an incoming flame sword…

Or your playing an epic adventure game, and after 50+ hours of gameplay you reach the end… And the final boss looks just like you… Kinect studied you while you played…and decided to made ‘You’ the villain at the end of the game

Willy McBurgle

Tell you what – you get kinect 2.0 and set it up in my living room with my 7.1 Yamaha DTS-HDMA setup and see if Kinect can still hear you say commands properly. In my experience, have the time the first Kinect was hearing voice commands from the game music (while completely ignoring me) – I had to disable voice control all together just to make the game playable (this happened on both Skyrim and Mass Effect 3). Kinect to date is a failed technology for me. I certainly wouldn’t be jumping on board with the next version until it had some years to mature – and even then, a machine wasting 3 gigs of precious RAM on Kinect features and TV switching tech (that I don’t need) seems pretty pointless. Waste of power.

ha55ie

Not a problem.. That was a major complaint by Kinect v1 fans. No matter bow much your tv is thumping, it will cut through the noise and listen for your voice only..

And the 3Gb of RAM, are not for Kinect it’s for the Windows OS on XB1. Kinect v2 has its own processor and memory.

3gb is so that Windows can run, and apps be ready to got in an instance at all times, 5gb is for Xbox games and games can be ready to go.. When MS did the reveal and said Xbox game, it is that fast…

So they plan to charge monthly fees? That’s the stupidest idea ever. Can’t they just make these like ‘pure’ consoles such as the PS2? Those ‘always connected’, ‘monthly fees’, full-blown DRM schemes, etc. rumors really make me want to stay away from these consoles that are nothing more than what would otherwise be low end x86 computers housed in cases that make them look un-PC-like.

ronch

Can’t they just make consoles like they used to? You know, turn on, insert game CD, play? All the rest are just fluff. Just make god-darn good games.

Battlereaver

Microsoft came out of the gate and pretty much punched us all in the mouth. “Here is our next console and it has DRM, always online requirement, and kinect always on requirement!… What you don’t like any of that? So? Then buy a 360.” It only took their pre-order sales plummeting and all the negative press and discussion on the internet before they slowly took it back a piece at a time.

I watched the bit with Major Nelson who said it would seem easy to remove that always online requirement to pretty much win back fans and the guy he was interviewing had some snarky answer like is it easy? No it isn’t. Then they go and remove it right after E3.

I want a game console that is just that, a game console. And I want it from a company that seems sincere in trying to give us what we want. Sony has come out and from the start going we hear you guys and this is what we developed. Where Microsoft came out and said this is what we think you want and you are going to like it! I am sticking to my guns even after their retraction of all those features and not buying the console. If it was that easy for them to remove it to get sales they can easily a year from now flick a switch and put it all back.

ha55ie

Gamers are always screaming give us what we want…
Well, what exactly do gamers want?…
This generation of gamers are the biggest crybabies of any generation previous to it…
Y’all keep crying that Ms isn’t giving you what you want, but you NEVER say what it is you want exactly…
Is the XB1 not capable of super HD games that can run up to 60fps?… Do they not have the best infrastructure for online play?… Did they not invest $1 billion into new games?…. They darn thing cost $500..and they are trying to give more than $500 worth of value…

What the difference between the PS4 and XB1 as of right now??
I’ll tell you, one has a slightly better graphics card, and the other has a better camera, infrastructure, SDK, support system for devs…and way more $$$ to make this right for everyone….

So please tell me how they are not listening… Ooooo they included a camera that has to be hooked up… Who cares… Take off the paranoi suit already…

Battlereaver

PS4 actually has better overall system stats because of the architecture it uses for the RAM, CPU, and GPU to communicate to each other quickly. Also 8gb of GDDR5 ram isn’t the same as 8gb of DDR3 ram.

And Microsoft only listened after they saw their wallet get smaller from pre-order cancellations. Otherwise why did the DRM idea get leaked and everyone flipped out like no don’t do that. Then E3 rolls around and they tell everyone yup DRM and get asked what if people don’t have good internet and they tell everyone to buy a 360. That is not listening and saying you don’t know what you want we do! And when everyone responded in kind by canceling pre-orders they went okay fine.

After all the negative reactions to any DRM recently did you really think MS would think we wanted a DRM always online solution? This just reminds me of their views on Windows and how everyone complains we don’t want that and they go too bad here. And then after no body buys it they try and finally go back and fix it.

Don’t get me wrong I would love for the Xbox to be a success to have competition in the console market place and really make me consider getting one. But where it stands right now it is $100 more than a PS4 and has less specs and PS4 went back to the same support system for development teams to allow games to be made just as easily. And that is my opinion and choice as a consumer I get to make, I saw that MS tried for shove stuff down my throat and when raised with concern they shrugged and went so what until they financially saw the problem.

ha55ie

That is true… Sony put that in there… but did you ask for it?
Nope… People just look at 2 different spec sheets and base judgement on that…

I hate racing games and Forza looked equal to or better than some of the PS4 games. (yes this is the beginning stages, but still)

One again… The graphics, mechanics, and speed are there, storage is there… the infrastructure is there… XB1 has all those core elements…

Only difference is the Spec Sheet…
Read my post again.

Battlereaver

I wouldn’t subjugate myself to that punishment twice in one day. Buy your Xbox one and enjoy it I will buy my PS4 and enjoy it.

esan

I have a funny feeling that if Sony were the one that had these controller setting features it would be praised and touted around as ‘another win’, like heavy artillery in the console war forums – But since its MS its met with jaded antipathy. I think its a great example of things to come with the Kinect 2, proof that its advantages will go beyond the gimmicks and arm flailing of the original Kinect. But one thing definitely can be said for sure here;

Haters guna Hate

James Lawrence Murphy II

So now sony will have an arsenal of glowing blue controllers shining on your tv glaring the screen for no reason at all lol

Saeteurnkl

first killer instinct was booed hard at evo 2013

xbox announced it can start playing games while it installs which is a completely different meaning then playing games while it downloads…..

Oh, Microsoft announced the chucking service at the Xbox One reveal, not just recently, and the booing, well it is either really childish, or it was due to the pause in game play, as one independent journalist described it.

ha55ie

Ya’ll kill me… Crying and complaining… Dog and laugh at MS all you want…

Saying MS is all about gimmicks and lies…

No company stays around for 30+ yrs based on gimmicks and lies…

MS has more $$$ than Nintendo and Sony combined…

Most tech around the world has some MS kind of code in it…

So people are crying that MS can’t improve Kinect… Such narrow minded thinking… lets help you out… Microsoft bought the Tech from Prime Sense… Had to quickly throw together a SDK for it and get it on shelves (because the Wii was taking the casual market by storm)…

Kinect v1 and Kinect v2 will not be the same… just only in name… There is basically no Prime Sense tech in Kinect v2… Built from the ground up from MS themselves…Software & Hardware being built around each other… It’s own true dedicated hardware (not free-loading resources off the XB1)…

Keep selling MS short…
The competition has been copying MS… not the other way around…

Aaron Jay Ballam

You, sir, are bang on. And I’m getting both. (PS4 eventually…)

chojin999

Two desperate Microsoft and Sony employees.. the puppets trying to sell the scam..

ha55ie

whatever you say…your entitled to your opinion…
None of what I stated is stretched or a lie… So how am I a puppet?? If you are going to name call, have a reason why.

MS does have more loot than Sony and Nintendo combined…
What I said about Kinect 1 vs Kinect 2 is true as well
And that the Software and Hardware were built around each other..

And they have been around for 30+ years… And their code is in a lot of things across the globe…

Kabwall

“What I said about Kinect 1 vs Kinect 2 is true as well
And that the Software and Hardware were built around each other..” Very nice point, and in more ways than one.

Aaron Jay Ballam

Ah! We’ve been rumbled! Well done, Sherlock. Back off to Microsoft I go. Foiled again!

Jackass.

ha55ie

They stuck a new graphics card & RAM in the PS3 and called it the PS4… Congrats…

They rebuilt the Xbox, rebuilt the OS, rebuilt IE, put in hypervisor so they can run together, built a cloud system on a level that no one has ever tried before, redid Kinect from ground up (has no Prime Sense tech in it whatsoever), and decided to throw Xbox Live on the cloud as well) and gave everything dedicated resources as well… And then threw $1billion for new game development….

Corey

That’s why they have to appeal to the hardcore gamers….because casual gamers will just play there ios games and all the mobile games. There is a market for the consoles still for sure. But its gotta be about epic non-casual games. NOT “kinect bunnytopia”

Yuan Taizong

We can blaim Crapple for that, if Steve Jobs was alive he and his Anti-Microsoft goons would call the iPod, iPhone and iPad’s Game Centre the usherer of ”the Post-Console Era” or some other junk.

The Xbox One’s pre-orders already exceded expectations, DESPITE being the most hated thing on the internet AND the trend in media (as this article proves) of reporthing anything negative of it just to catch agreeing eyes.

Kyle

Impressive features? Fire this writer.

Aaron Jay Ballam

This is to the countless faceless people on the internet who seem utterly apoplectic with rage over such trivialities. Why do you people feel the need to act like these companies have defiled you in some way? Why do you people feel the need to slag others off and attack them based on their choice of console?
Who the fuck cares if you don’t like a console or Sony or Microsoft or whatever? Why the fuck do YOU care so much? Bottom line: they are boxes made by corporations to allow us to spend money entertaining ourselves in those precious few moments when life doesn’t get in the way. It’s not life or death. There hasn’t been a murder or a rape or a mass killing. You don’t like X, Y, Z? Then don’t fucking buy it. Take a deep breath, relax, and go find something that you will like. None of this fucking matters.
Same with the so-called movie or comic fans who freak out over Batman’s eyebrows or the colour of The Enterprise’s warp nacelles or what have you. Reality check: one day you will die and cease to be and all of your comically overblown hate and bile and anger and resentment will have been for nothing. So just swallow that chill pill and, if it’s not for you, just shrug, say ‘no thanks’ and walk away. Just walk away…
Me? I’ll buy what I fancy, without the need to be rude or belittle anyone else – companies, their employees or their fans. And I will use that thing knowing it’s JUST an entertainment, nothing more, nothing less, and get on with being a human being and enjoying the rest of my life dealing with the important stuff. NOT by being a cunt on the internet because for some reason I feel I have an entitlement to or because Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo touched me in the bathing suit area.
I realise I’m probably just pissing in the wind here but, if I could just stop one abusive, trolling asshole to rethink and decide that life is too short after all, my work will be done.

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